The two books of Harper Lee #BookDiscussion

I read To Kill a Mockingbird as a teen. For the longest time, I continued to count it in my favourites without actually remembering its finer nuances.

You know how that happens, right? You remember you loved a book but you forget the exact bits that made you like it that much.

Over the years, I read plenty of criticism of Mockingbird. It was panned for its objectionable language — specifically for the use of words like ‘nigger’. Some authors also objected to it for the white saviour syndrome it propagated. 

I began to wonder if I had been too immature when I read it which is why I had elevated it to a position it didn’t really deserve.

The only thing to be done, then, was to re-read it. 

And so I did.

To my surprise and relief, it overwhelmed me. Again. 

Let me say this one more time, with the maturity of all of my years — TKAM is a classic worth reading, detractors be damned.

***** Spoilers ahead (If you haven’t read the book) *****

To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of…

…Atticus a lawyer in Maycomb county, and his two children Jem and Scout. 

The narrative unfolds from the point of view of 10-year-old Scout. Atticus is appointed the defence lawyer for Tom, a black man accused of raping a white woman. The result is apparent even before the case is brought before the jury, for the all-white jury would never let a black man go free.

Despite being aware of this colour politics, Atticus soldiers on, producing evidence after evidence that proves Tom’s innocence beyond doubt. And yet, to nobody’s surprise, he is convicted and is killed while trying to escape.

While racism remains the overriding theme of the book, what makes it special is the voice of 10-year-old Scout, who Lee modelled on her own self.

Read more about Harper Lee

To write about as complex a topic as this one, from a child’s point of view, and to get it so right, remains the most amazing thing about the book.

Harper Lee never wrote a book again, until, more than five decades later.

Harper Collins, in 2015, announced the publishing of Go Set a Watchman, a sequel to Mockingbird.

Obviously, then, there was tremendous excitement and (according to Amazon), it ended up becoming the most pre-ordered book since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I too received a copy as soon as it was available. I could barely get through a few pages before I abandoned it, unable to continue.

Having recently re-read Mockingbird, and reluctant to move out of Maycomb County and Scout and Jem’s world, I decided to give Watchman another chance. Besides, wasn’t I older and wiser now?

What’s Go Set A Watchman about?

GSAW dwells upon Scout’s disillusionment with Maycomb in general and Atticus in particular. It is a coming-of-age novel, of letting go of ideals, of taking Atticus down from the pedestal that Scout (and the rest of us, readers) has placed him on and getting her to realise that he is human after all.

Why GSAW broke my heart

Here’s what I found on reading GSAW

• A 26-year-old Scout, wiser, more mature, way more cynical (and less likeable).
• An Atticus who is practical, segregationist, racist even.
• Jem, gone, dead.
• The warm and loving Calpurnia (The black house-help) is gone too, replaced by a disillusioned, suspicious version of her old self.

If you have read TKAM I know you’re squirming and cringing just like I did. GSAW is utterly bereft of the innocence and the simple goodness of its predecessor.

The biggest letdown is Atticus. In him, we had a hero. He was not just the conscience of the book but the collective conscience of all of us. And then in GSAW he says things like this:

“Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools and churches and theaters? Do you want them in our world?”

Heartbreaking!

The case of Tom which makes up the central idea of TKAM, is mentioned in a single line as a flashback. In GASW Atticus fights his case and the black man is acquitted at the end of the trial.

Scout’s childhood memories introduce us to Jem and Dill, but they aren’t there at all in GSAW.

It was like reading two versions of the same book. Worse still, it was like reading an awkward, clunky version of a dearly-loved story.

How GSAW come to be published

It is now clear that GSAW wasn’t a sequel at all. It was, in fact, an early draft of  TKAM.

At the time of its publication, Lee, 89, lived in an assisted facility. She was a stroke victim who could barely see or hear. Knowing whatever we do know of her, she couldn’t possibly have okayed the publishing of this book. She passed away the year after it was published. 

Readers will never forgive Harper Collins for doing this to Lee’s legacy. The publishers continue to promote it as ‘Harper Lee’s sensational lost novel’.

The audacity!

An editor can make a world of difference

The most pertinent takeaway from this sorry episode is the importance of a good editor and how she can transform a book. 

If the dynamics of writing intrigue you, the two books make for an interesting case study.

When Lee’s editor Tay Hohoff (Therese von Hohoff Torrey) stumbled upon this early draft she recognised Lee’s brilliance. However, she loved the parts describing Jem and Scout’s childhood best of all.

She reached out to Lee and asked her to build upon that. 

Luckily, Lee believed ideas needed to be worked upon and improved many times over before being presented to the world. And so the draft went back and forth between the two women. 

One winter morning, a frustrated Lee threw the manuscript out of her window before calling Hohoff, who asked her to go back and retrieve it.

TKAM is said to reflect bits of Hohoff’s modern liberal views.

Together, Lee and Hohoff transformed an angsty, unhappy book into one with the perfect redemption arc and a hero who stands tall even now.

And the world received its classic.

Click on the picture to buy the books.

PS: You might want to look up the film Just Mercy on Netflix that also deals with racism in Maycomb, Alabama.

This post is part of the Bookish League blog hop hosted by Bohemian Bibliophile.